


Promise me

by Faraheim



Category: Dunkirk (2017), Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, M/M, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 12:48:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16744276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faraheim/pseuds/Faraheim
Summary: Billy is a French pilot that just landed on the wrong side of the chessboard with no way back.He meets Steve, a Canadian soldier during capture.(Read the end notes)





	Promise me

Billy lands his Spitfire precariously on the wrong side of the coast with no fuel. He smiles as he sets fire to his fighter plane until German soldiers capture him. They search him for weapons and strip him off of anything lethal. They drag him through the sand and all the heroic shit he's done gets washed away when it sinks in what's about to happen. 

 

He stays silent anyway they’re going to kill him, might as well keep his mouth shut. But they don't and after a solid welcome in the form of several beatings he's thrown in a cell. 

There's a body that lays face down there. There's a lot of bodies. Inside cells and out in the dirt. Executed. Machine gun spray style. All young guys just disposed like used tissues.   
  
Billy tries not to look at the body too hard and stays in his corner. A grunt startles him and he almost screams at the body. Who is apparently not dead, the head moves and one lonely brown eye greets him. 

 

“Hello” the guy says with a lot of effort. He's really messed up. 

 

Billy stands carefully, helps him move. Billy might be messed up too, but the fur leather jacket absorbed most of the damage and Billy can take a beating or two. The guy can't even move by himself without letting a pained whine ring through their cell.

 

“You too, huh?” Billy says jokingly for a lack of a better thing to add.

 

“Steve” the guy- Steve breathes raspy “my name. what got you in- ?” Steve asks looking up from the floor. Light brown hair greasy and unkempt. Dried blood caked to his upper lip. His lip is busted and his right eye swollen shut, his face is a mess. A full galaxy of color it seems, blue, green and violet. Bruises on top of bruises.

 

Steve has a slight french accent but his uniform isn't from any french troop Billy can recognize. “Just helping evacuate. Flew to the wrong side of the chessboard with no way back. You know how it is” Billy responds transparent and lastly as an afterthought adds in french “mon campagnard” 

 

“Aah non, je suis Canadien but my mom, she’s from the states” 

 

“mon nom est Billy, then, for you”

 

“Billy? That doesn't sound french at all” Steve laughs and coughs by the end. He holds his ribs as if in pain.

  
“Funny you should mention that. Comes from my father’s side He's an american” and a fucking violent drunk but he doesn't say that.

  
  


-

 

Billy sticks to Steve since that day in the cell. It isn't uncommon, a lot of soldiers that get captured at the same time stay together. It’s better like that. Makes you want to keep going if not for yourself. Makes you less reckless.

 

They survive together for four years. They're forced to work starved and in the cold. German soldiers marching them through camps and loading them like sheep, nipping violently at their tired heels. They learn a bit of German, enough for them to discover that they are being sent to Poland or sometimes Germany. Back and forth like cattle.

They see a lot of shit in those years. Plenty of dead, pointless and vicious. Billy thought he knew misery before the war. But it's nothing like now. This long wait for god knows what.

 

He's glad for the warmth Steve brings him. The way Steve knows when to distract him. They don't have any privacy but at this point the rest of the guys don't care that sometimes they bring their cots a little bit too close to sleep.

  
  


It's difficult to tell when they started. It seems like after being released from their shared cell all they did was look at each other. Like a missing limb. Steve is just a part of Billy now.

Looking at Steve is the only thing that will bring him any joy these days. Steve tries his best to remain positive. To tell Billy they won't be here long.

 

Steve kisses the corner of his lip and it breaks Billy's heart. It shouldn't be like this.

 

At night Billy holds his hand and imagines a better life for them. Away from the blood and the hate and everything. Just the two of them happy.

 

-

 

Some months later when their capture is about to go on into five long years their fate turns for the worse. Billy fucks up but Steve saves him and pays dearly for it.

 

Billy sees a German soldier stomping on a young skinny guy. Too skinny and too young. Which is common but he's tired and he hasn't slept in two days. So when he sees the guy on the floor has ginger hair he loses it. There's no German soldier. Only his dad hurting Max. And Billy reacts. 

He pushes his dad hard, then there's a pair of hands grabbing him. Dragging him back. Steve is there. Holding him back and speaking to someone. Billy breathes harshly his blood pounding in his head.

 

Billy comes back to himself and his blood turns cold. Face white as a sheet as he watches Steve try to explain in broken german to the soldier. Billy moves but three of the guys are holding him back. 

Harry hisses “Steve is fixing it, you wanker, stay put”

“Let me go” Billy bites and fights the arms holding him when he sees the German soldier advance on Steve.

 

“Steve told me to restrain you for his jacket” Jean adds nonchalant. Still holding onto him with force.

Steve can't promise that jacket since it was Billy's first. 

He turns to him to spit “That's my jacket” his anger builds irrationally fast because he's scared.

But then a shot rings in the air and he looks back in time to see Steve fall to the ground. 

 

Time stops for Billy and he gasps. Letting a wrenched yell escape from his lips “Steve!” he pleads voice breaking.

 

The German soldier smiles ”Das wird nicht wieder passieren. arbeiten!" he yells lastly. A grin around the mouth and leaves them.

The guys let him go. He runs and he falls to his knees in front of Steve. Heart going a mile. His shaking hands grip Steve and he turns him to inspect the damage.

“Ooww” Steve whines “he shot me!”

 

Billy breathes out when he sees it's only his arm and then he's yelling “you stupid Canadian fuck!! Your arm, Steve!” he's railing Steve in french then until Jean comes and divests Steve of the jacket. 

 

Billy stops, furious and turns on him. Grabs him by the lapels of his tattered french uniform. Eyes hard. Nostrils flaring.

 

Jean rolls his eyes “toi bête unhand me! I gotta stop the bleeding. You can keep yelling on the side. Now move please. Tut tut C’mon” Billy relinquishes his hold.

  
  


That night when they lay on their sides facing each other on their ‘cots' Billy looks at Steve seriously. He slicks a strand of hair behind his lover's ear. “You could have died.”

“Doesn't matter.”

“It matters to me” Billy says softly, eyes sad. He looks at the bloody bandages on Steve's arm. Harry and Jean made do with what they had for the wound. Billy is scared it's gonna get infected. This is his fault but Steve has already told him. Insisted that it wasn't. “Why would you do that?” Billy bites.

 

Steve closes his eyes. Moves a bit closer to whisper in Billy's ear “because some guy I love was being an” he winces in pain “Inbécile” his wound must be hurting a lot, they barely get any food. So they don't have any painkillers. They are lucky that the bullet went through his arm without touching anything important.

“Sorry” Billy says “I don't know what came over me. I just- did I tell you about my sister?” Billy says

 

With his eyes closed still Steve smiles “your  _ step _ sister Maxine? Maybe once or twice.”

 

Billy ignores the dig “yeah. She has hair like that. I don't know why I reacted” the ginger guy was dead anyway. Long before Billy stepped in. Billy's throat gets tight “sorry” he says “I'm so sorry baby” he cries.

 

“It's okay, Billy”

 

It isn't.

 

-

 

Steve's arm only gets worse by the third day and he can't work as well as before. There's nothing they can do for the pain. It drives him mad, seeing Steve hurt like that. Pretending like he's fine.

 

Yesterday one German soldier shot a guy on a cot because he couldn't stand. Steve saw it.

 

Just when he feels that Steve's days are counted Billy hears they are moving them tomorrow. 

He knows Steve won't make it here. So he enlists their friends for a bit of help and Jean finally gets the fur leather jacket. They leave with some rations and their canteens full.

 

Against all odds they manage to escape when the soldiers are shipping them on the train to Poland.

It's a long journey on foot but they keep going.

 

Steve's arm is a mess, swollen and looking worse and worse, the smell is repulsive and Billy does his best not to gag when a waft of it invades his nose. Steve hurts pretty badly. It makes it extremely difficult to walk.

 

Billy is so  _ scared _ . He might have saved Steve from a bullet to the head like that guy who couldn't stand but now his body is fighting against them. 

They walk for a day and sleep under a tree, hidden. Billy tried his best arranging branches and dry leaves for insulation against the cold.

 

The next time the can rest. Billy finds a farm. Seemingly abandoned. They made a lot of progress in the day but they are short on food. The farm, amazingly has a water pump with drinkable water. He makes Steve drink it slowly. 

They sleep in the barn away from prying eyes. That night Steve’s arm is practically a furnace, any kind of movement produces acute pain leaving him restless. Billy tries his best with an old blanket that he keeps dipping in cold water. They shake through the night from the cold and all Billy can do is hold him. Scared that when he wakes Steve won't be alive.

 

He doesn't want to get discovered by the Nazis but Steve really needs a doctor. The bandages are gross but he tries his best to clean the yellowy puss away. Like that helps any he thinks, filled to the brim with despair.

Steve walks half delirious and says the most fucked up shit about monsters and dog beasts he imagines trying to eat him. It makes the travel very difficult.

 

They make it until a farmer helps them. Billy risks everything by doing this but he has no other option. The farmer tells them he's helped POWs that escape from the work camps. He can only hope it's true. And follows the man.

 

The man takes them to his sister. It’s like a miracle. Billy thinks this is a dream. Things are going too smoothly.

 

The sister who is barely a nurse tells them they gotta cut Stevie’s arm. 

 

It's the first indication that things are turning for the worse. Billy suspected it, really, since Steve's arm smells like a cadaver. 

Steve’s out of it. The woman made him drink some vodka. Half a bottle. She had stashed away. The painkillers will help him more, after, she doesn't have many. 

 

Her eyes are blue and wide. Explains that her father was the doctor and while she helped several times she wasn't in charge but she will do her best. They are all out of their depth here. But she's willing to help and Billy won't let Steve die.

 

He and the nurse prepare for it. Tie Steve to the bed. The nurse- Agniezka her name is Agniezka ties a tourniquet on Steve's arm. Tells him “hold him with all your strength, he's gonna fight back.”

 

They do it and Billy who has seen things. It's the war. Everyone has fucking seen things. It's normal. Pukes all over the floor when he thinks the arm cutting process is done.

 

The situation is so ugly and he can't cry he doesn't think he is able anymore but he really  _ really _ wants to.

 

Steve doesn't have an arm. His beautiful Steve. Butchered.

 

When Steve wakes he's angry at Billy about losing his arm. It's not good but  _ well _ he's alive and Billy will take that any day.

 

What are you gonna use the arm for when you're dead?

 

They stay for a week while a weak Steve recuperates. He looks less under the weather. Before Sunday Agniezka’s brother, Czeslaw. Tells them they can get them out.

“The allied forces are close. They say the war is ending, finally” Czeslaw says heavily accented but happy.

 

They lend him a cart that breaks when he's a mile from the point in the map. Billy doesn't know where he gets the strength but he grabs Steve. And holds him in his arms. 

Steve whispers to his mouth that he loves him and that he's so proud of him. Kisses him all over the face making Billy smile. He's too warm to the touch, eyes unfocused. Probably in a whole lot of pain. “Come on drink some more water huh?” he tips the canteen to Steve’s lips until his throat works.

 

“Promise me” Steve grabs his hand. After swallowing the alcohol. Billy stills in place. Remembering that time. Those first weeks when Steve made him Promise. They didn't knew each other very well and Steve thought his days were over.

“Promise me” Steve says to his lips. Warmth seeping from his hand into Billy's. Breath stinking of the cheap vodka Agniezka probably stole from some Nazis. They don't have any more drugs so Billy rations the alcohol to Steve. To numb him.

 

“I promise. Now come on I gotta walk us home babe” Billy says and quickly lets his hand go. Positions Steve in a fireman’s carry.

 

Billy looks back to Steve's sleeping face. Frown set. He cleans the sweat out of Steve's forehead.

He's not getting better. 

Trying not to think Steve is gonna die anytime now. Billy focuses on walking. They haven't eaten for two days. And Steve is so skinny. So he pushes against the tiredness. One feet in front of the other. Steve getting heavier and heavier.

 

When they make it to safe land. Billy almost cries. He drops Steve gently to the ground. “Hey, baby. BABY” he says trying to wake him, shakes him a bit. Steve's eyes are dull. Duller than they’ve ever been. He's so quiet. Billy looks in the distance. “HEY! I NEED HELP” yells calling for attention to the few men walking. “HEY!!” he prays they hear him. Some of them notice him finally. “HERE!”

 

He's too tired, so tired. All the energy he had bleeds out of him, when men run to his aid.

Someone takes Steve from him and everything feels very far away. He's glad he made it. 

 

They made it.

 

-

 

He wakes up in a medical tent. It's noisy and filled with occupied stretchers. He doesn't find Steve.

 

When a nurse finally checks on him she tells him he’s malnourished and dehydrated. He has been asleep for the better part of a day it seems.

Billy asks about Steve but she doesn't know. Tells him she's going to ask around. That it's a mess. That anytime she turns more Allies are sent for medical care.

 

When she comes back her face is stony and tells him he can see Steve when he can stand. 

 

Billy stays quiet

“sorry” she says and leaves. Somewhere inside he knew. Suspected even but to have it confirmed.    
Tears fall warm on his cheeks. He lays down and covers his eyes with his arm. It's been a long time since he's cried like this.

 

The nurse when she takes him to see Steve, won't mention his puffy red rimmed eyes. She will place a soft hand on his shoulder and leave him to mourn. She knows what it looks like when part of a soldier's soul gets torn away. She's seen it many times now.

 

-

 

Billy thinks back to a moment when they were still in the cell and Steve told him. "Hey blue.”

_ Your eyes are too blue. A lot like the ocean. _

"You gotta be happy someday. For me. Try to make it out alive. Huh?" and Billy scoffed thinking there wasn't any chance that was going to happen.

“Yeah okay, anything for a pretty boy like you”

“How can you tell? I'm a mess”

“Your voice maybe. Or the way you just look”

“You have been away from women a long time then“ he laughed.

Billy snorted. Steve had no idea. 

  
  


-

 

Steve's remains are sent to his family and they hold a funeral for him. Billy meets a few of his friends. And Steve's ex. She promises her baby will bear his name after he tells her what a dumb hero Steve was. She tells him he was always like that. Only winning fights for others. She cried until her husband came to get her.

 

Billy stands there for a long time. Until he's the only one there “you are one true sonuvabitch, baby” he says. His eyes blur with fresh tears.

 

-

 

Billy is hailed as a hero and a local newspaper hounds him for his story. It gets him a lot of things. People that lost a son or a brother or any type of family adore him. But it feels like he’s dying a bit inside each time someone brings Steve's name in conversation.

Makes him feel very shitty that he's alone.

 

But he ends up doing all the things that Steve wanted him to do once they were free, like go to the beach, eat the biggest hamburger, drive a really fast car and feel the wind. Stuff like that.

 

Later Billy ends working in a garage. The owner had a brother once. And so Billy keeps getting by like that. Filling empty places.

 

The years pass. He gets a dog and names it like Steve's favorite cereal. Wouldn't shut up about it every morning. Back when the were in the cell.

 

He has a lot of dogs by the end and a fast car.

He drives around and says "let’s go fast baby" makes the engine purr.

Max says calling the car like his dead significant other’s nickname is unhealthy. But he keeps doing it.

  
  


-

 

When it's too hard and too warm he visits Steve. It's cold in Quebec and he finds a friend of Steve's at the cemetery.

 

Dustin gives him photographs and a jacket Steve used to wear everywhere. When he comes back to his house he hangs it by the fur leather jacket with a distinctive set of holes.

 

_ Heard you own a garage now and I was looking for a job. And… maybe you'd want his jacket too. I kept it. _

 

Jean met his wife thanks to Billy so that was the least he could give to Billy. Their business goes well. Better than Billy ever dreamed. Everything goes too well for him. Billy would trade everything for just a day- for an hour with Steve.

 

The world doesn’t work like that. The sun keeps shining and fate keeps smiling on him. One big apology, maybe for what life took from him.

 

Billy gets a house, fills it with dogs because the only person he wants will never be there and he helps his neighbors even though he hates everyone. But it's what Steve would have done.

 

Max sometimes goes with him to Canada And Dustin tells them about Steve some more. Stories that Billy's heard a thousand times. Max meets her guy like that. When Dustin thinks Lucas has other stories to tell. Steve was really loved.

 

-

 

One night when he feels nostalgic he takes the box with Steve's pictures out of his dresser. Where he looks whole and healthy. The smile. That smile isn't like the one Billy knows. Doesn't reach the eyes.

He sleeps with the jackets and the old pictures.

 

Billy goes by Bill now. He's an old man and Max’s babies call him grandpa. Which is rude but also makes him want to cry for how happy that makes him. But only a bit.

 

He's at the store. Looking for painkillers for his bad knee. When an acute pain invades his head. He blinks it away.

 

“Hey blue” he hears at the end of the aisle. Bill would recognize that voice anywhere.

 

He turns and Steve is there. Like in one of the pictures Dustin gave him so long ago. Eyes bright and young. Billy only knew him when he was skin and bones but this Steve, he has muscle definition. His hair shines healthy. But the smile.

That's the smile Billy knows.

 

"Hey, I was waiting for you" Steve breathes

Extends his hand towards him. And when Bill grabs it. It's warm. Any pain Billy was feeling disappears. His bones feel young again.

 

He can’t believe what he is seeing but it’s real, Steve is REAL.

 

"Tell me about the promise" Steve teases while he kisses the corner of Billy’s mouth.

  
"I did as you asked.” he says annoyed “after all I had a list to fulfill" 

Steve hums. Droopy eyes never leaving Billy.

“But only now I can tell you I'm happy. Because you're here with me, Stevie” Billy moves, resting his forehead against Steve's for a second. Inhaling him.

 

Steve smiles "I'm happy to have you too"   
"I don't know if I could have waited any longer.” he jokes. Billy moves back a few inches to keep looking at him, fascinated “Let's go home" Steve finally says. 

 

Steve leads him. Hands linked together while Billy tells him about the car, the dogs, about the house, the neighbors, about Max and Dustin and everyone. Billy feels peace and warmth filling every crack in his soul. 

 

Steve holds his hand tight. They drift away like that.

 

Reunited at last.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't love spoiling stories but in case this triggers somebody
> 
> Major character death, no sex but I made it explicit because of the "gore" content. War related stuff. Sad feels of the angst category lol.
> 
> But happy ending. Which u should thank pato and dex for otherwise it would be straight up angst and my friend kiki who walked me through the wounds and reminded me they needed water to survive etc. I'm matchstickwords on tumblr :v
> 
> Pardon my french :p google helped me  
> mon campagnard= my countryman  
> non, je suis Canadien= no, I'm Canadian  
> mon nom est Billy= my name is Billy  
> Das wird nicht wieder passieren. arbeiten!= this won't happen again. To work!  
> Toi bête= you beast


End file.
